1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for controlling production process, particularly to the method and apparatus which is capable of detecting production delay at every process.
2. Description of Related Art
A producer is required to deliver products ordered by an orderer on exactly the day of delivery. Accordingly, the producer makes a production plan so that the products are in time for the day of delivery, and produces products according to the production plan.
When there is a rush order for products which was received later than the other orders, in actual, the rush order sometimes goes ahead of the other to produce the products with priority, or there are sometimes immeasurable accidents such as a trouble of a production apparatus. Thereby, production in accordance with the initial plan is not carried out and sometimes there are products which are not delivered on the delivery date. When there are such products that are not delivered on the delivery date, they cause a great annoyance to a user, lose reliance of the user, reduce orders and lower actual results of orders.
When it is not until the day after the delivery date that the fact that such products have not been shipped yet is discovered, it is too late to consider the counterplan. Accordingly, in the conventional production controlling method, in order to prevent the above, a process control table which determines a completion time and the like at every production process concerning all of the products is made and the advance situation based on the table is investigated by a man every day or every predetermined term. In the case where the production delay is discovered, a counterplan for recovering the delay is considered. The investigation of the advance situation, however, requires many persons and much time, which affects the products cost and raises the products cost.